​Whew...finally! "Madness Lives" is now available for download on Bandcamp! (https://wallsofgenius.bandcamp.com) Don't ask me why I digitized "Son Of Madness" first, there's no rational answer, things just worked out that way. But "Madness Lives" was just as good. In fact, it was so good that it inspired the sequel. So in true Stars Wars tradition, I digitized and posted the sequel prior to the original.

The story of the Madness compilations has been told in detail at www.HalTapes.com on the Walls Of Genius archive, thanks to a lot of hard work by Hal McGee (http://www.haltapes.com/walls-of-genius.html) I don't wish to cause ear fatigue, so I will recapitulate briefly here for those who haven't heard the tale, for those who were there, and for those who aren't sick of hearing my voice. There we were, back in 1985, Little Fyodor and I were living in the Hall Of Genius on 19th Street in old north downtown, back when working stiffs like us could actually afford to live in downtown Boulder. Almost. We were pushing it. But we were young and motivated.

We had already gotten a start with the underground in 1983, recording in Ed Fowler's living-room. Later on, Little Fyodor helped me out with rent at the Eldorado Springs house before I got kicked out. At the house on 19th Street, he and I set up the living-room as a recording studio. We started pushing Walls Of Genius on the Cassette Culture Underground. We recorded relentlessly and released new material on a nearly monthly basis. We sent out catalogs every few months with humorous tongue-in-cheek material and lists of our latest releases. Not only did we desire ever-more reviews from the 'zines covering this underground scene, we wanted, like unhinged Rodney Dangerfields, respect. All while trying to fool that world into believing there really was an experimental music scene in Boulder, Colorado, by recording as a different band every time we turned on the Dokorder. Everybody caught on to the joke eventually and that's when we officially became "Walls Of Genius". It was amazing that such a scene existed and we wanted at least thirty-five-minutes of fame, if not more. One of the ways of disseminating your music to a wider audience was to send submissions to compilation tapes and everybody was doing it.

"Madness Lives" was by no means the first of its kind. There had already been many comps and Walls Of Genius had happily submitted a number of tracks. By the summer of 1985, we felt that we had enough connections through the snail-mail network to put together what we envisioned as a 'tour-de-force', a compilation that would cover the whole scene. The word went out via a Walls Of Genius catalog, "The Gift Of The Geek", that featured the releases of what would subsequently be two of our most successful titles, "Before...and After" and "the mysterious case of Pussy Lust". The solicitation begged for psychological nakedness, promising the "most intense sort of insanity". We had been already been called the 'new sound terrorists of America' by one reviewer and we wanted our compilation to fit the same mold.

And fit it did. The response was overwhelming, so much so that a sequel was required to cover all the material we received. "Madness Lives", the first installment of the series, features 31 classic tracks from the mid-80s Cassette Culture in a wide variety of styles and includes a number of folks currently appearing in Electronic Cottage.

This is just a sample of the cassette submissions for "Madness Lives"... it was all done by snail mail in those days.

Nice to see you hear Evan. Wow some great compilations. I will check them out. To bad I never got a invite. :) Way it is though. Plenty more out there did & do. I look forward to listen to these. Would have been proud to be a part of it all. Cannot do it all though.
Kudos on your article & hard work digitizing & putting them up!

Reply

Little Fyodor

1/10/2020 14:49:36

Compilations were sure a key and common component of cassette culture, and I'm proud of the two that I helped Evan curate. I think they make both for fine listening in and of themselves and as worthy windows into the breadth of the scene that existed then, even if we did steer them somewhat toward the wacky and psychological naked side of things that we enjoyed. Oh, and even if, alas, we couldn't include everybody! Thanks for your comments, Chris, I think we'd have to take it as a compliment and a as a sign of your regard for WoG if your non-inclusion in these comps elicits a pang of regret (assuming I'm interpreting your words correctly?) even now! I'm sure we would have been very happy to include you had we only been in touch at that time..... (I'm pretty sure I was in touch with you by the close of the 80's, or early 90's for sure, but evidently not in time for these comps...?)

Well anyway, a hearty thanks to Evan and Hal for making this availability possible, and, on behalf of Evan and myself and all the contributors (at least one of whom I know is no longer with us), I hope you all can find the time to give a listen and might possibly... ENJOY!!

Reply

Little Fyodor

1/10/2020 15:40:11

Make that at least two who are no longer with us! (Maybe I'll think of more with time....)

Reply

Chris Phinney

1/11/2020 11:52:54

FYO,

Yes a compliment & a regard to W.O.G.!
I dont think you & I were in touch till a bit later.
I listened & totally enjoyed them!

Reply

Little Fyodor

1/11/2020 15:22:54

Thank you!! Glad you listened and liked!!

Swami L.

1/11/2020 11:44:20

I have a fancy pants double CD version of this album that I picked up at a McGee 50th Party in January 2008. ("reissued by Little Fyodor"). Very nice packaging, including laminated artwork. Shared some of it on my radio broadcasts too. I'm guessing that the CD is no longer available. (?) Some classic artists here, keep that flame burning!

Reply

Little Fyodor

1/11/2020 15:27:48

I was thinking of mentioning that it's available on CD(R) from me (via my website)!! Not sure why I didn't.... Didn't want to steal the thunder? I'm not *usually* that nice, haha!

Well there you go, the perfect lead-in! Yes, I put together a CDR version of this back when I was in a mode of reissuing classic WoG on CDR and guess what, it's still available!! At littlefyodor.com!!

Thanks for mentioning this, thanks for grabbing a copy and thanks for playing it on your show, and well thanks for just being the great Swami that you are, Swami!!!

Reply

Leslie Singer

1/12/2020 14:41:00

So happy to read that the Madness lives on Bandcamp. What a fun article and the pic with the Psycoframa tape really got me laughing. Priceless! Much thanks to you, EVan, Little Fyodor and of course Hal for bringing us all back together. Best wishes for a happy and healthy 2020!

Over the course of the next four years, Walls Of Genius took the underground by storm and rained on every conceivable parade, all with tongue firmly in cheek and cockeyed smiles.​The brain-child of disgruntled musician and self-anointed "Head Moron" Evan Cantor, Walls Of Genius' other founding members ('genial genii') were the famous wild-man Little Fyodor and electric guitar wizard Ed Fowler.

Stalwarts of the early 80's cassette culture scene, Walls Of Genius was both loved and reviled in equal measure.

By 1986 WoG had disbanded and was inactive until reunion sessions in 2014 re-ignited the flame. They happily soldier on, voices crying in the wilderness of madness that is this world in the 21st century.

​The Electronic Cottage website is primarily an online magazine for the publication of lengthy and in-depth articles, essays, and interviews.For those of you who use Facebook I have created an Electronic Cottage Group, which is a casual social gathering place of the EC Community, where EC people can meet, share artwork and news of current projects and releases.The website and this EC Facebook Group are two separate but connected entities of the greater EC Community.